Sunday, December 25, 2011

It only takes 17 minutes

On average Dutch people spend one and a half hours en route each day. That is 15 minutes longer than the average time on the road for citizens of 16 EU countries, and it is also the longest. Even so, the Dutch spend only 2 minutes longer per day commuting between home and work, than commuters in other countries do. These are some of the results presented in the report “The Netherlands in one day; time allocation in the Netherlands compared with fifteen other European countries” issued by the The Netherlands Institute for Social Research. Many Europeans are on the road daily for the home-to-work commute, shopping, transporting children to and fro, and leisure time activities. The Dutch travel frequently and long: The Netherlands has, at 92%, the highest percentage of the total population traveling daily and France has, at 72%, the lowest percentage. Even on weekdays, people spend more travel time for leisure activity purposes than they do commuting. This is not only the case in The Netherlands, but is also true for other west European countries and Northern Europe. Of the 91 minutes that the Dutch travel on average per day, 17 of those minutes are spent on the bicycle (19%). Commuters in Holland spend on average 2 minutes longer per day commuting than commuters do in other countries.